Tuesday, March 12, 2013

The Cycle of Life

The past few weeks was somewhat sad for hub's family. Both his step-grandparents passed on within a matter of weeks of each other. They both lived a full life I must say so it's just their time to go. Nevertheless, it's always sad when somebody ~ old or not ~ departs for good. The grandfather was in his mid-80s while his wife was a few years older. His passing came to us via a phone call from his stepson so we didn't really see him before that. We were able to go to his service though where we got to see his very frail wife. Almost a week after that service, her health deteriorated rather quickly. One day she was at the assisted home living facility, the next day she was transferred to a hospice because she was given only hours to live. We visited her last weekend and for the first time in my life, I saw a person on the verge of death.

Both my parents passed on while was away. My mother's passing was a surprise while my father's was expected. I was able to tend to my father during the last 2 months of his life. He stayed home throughout the 2 months I was home because he was still mobile and only needed occasional oxygen from the tank. He was only rushed to the hospital on the day he passed. On that particular day, I was away so I didn't see or experience the chaos surrounding his passing. My siblings told me that both of them [our parents] loved me too much to let me go through that. I didn't want to believe that....but after seeing hubby's grandma on the last hours [minutes actually] of her life, I am compelled to believe now that my siblings were probably right. I'm not sure if I would have been able to handle seeing my own parents go through that. When hub's aunt saw that her mom was struggling to breathe, she asked us if we wanted to leave already. She's an RN so she knows the signs. We all thought it'd be best if the little one didn't see what's about to happen so we left minutes before mommom took her last breath. We got the phone call while we were still driving from there. It was sad but we knew it was going to happen.

As it is, that's life. I think the little one puts it best when asked by one of her aunts what she thinks about what's happening to mommom. She said that that's the way it is....we're born, live our lives, then, well...we die. It's the cycle of life.